APPLE INC. v. UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC , No. 20-1330 (Fed. Cir. 2021)

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Case: 20-1330 Document: 50 Page: 1 Filed: 08/27/2021 NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________ APPLE INC., Appellant v. UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC, Appellee ______________________ 2020-1330 ______________________ Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial and Appeal Board in No. IPR201800812. ______________________ Decided: August 27, 2021 ______________________ BRITTANY BLUEITT AMADI, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, argued for appellant. Also represented by KEITH T. HOWELL; MONICA GREWAL, Boston, MA; MARK D. SELWYN, Palo Alto, CA. CHRISTOPHER MATHEWS, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, Los Angeles, CA, argued for appellee. Also represented by TIGRAN GULEDJIAN. ______________________ Case: 20-1330 2 Document: 50 APPLE INC. Page: 2 Filed: 08/27/2021 v. UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC Before NEWMAN, PROST *, and TARANTO, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM. The patent at issue in this appeal is U.S. Patent No. 8,856,539, owned by Universal Secure Registry LLC (USR). Apple filed a petition for an inter partes review, challenging several claims of the ’539 patent before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, which instituted the requested review and eventually issued a final written decision that Apple had not shown the challenged claims to be unpatentable. In another case, we have affirmed a district court’s judgment that all claims of the ’539 patent are patent ineligible. Universal Secure Registry LLC v. Apple Inc., No. 20-2044 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 26, 2021). Therefore, as the parties agreed at oral argument, this appeal involving the ’539 patent is now moot. Apple Inc. v. Voip-Pal.com, Inc., 976 F.3d 1316, 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2020); Oral Arg. at 7:00–7:55, 25:00–26:40. We vacate the Board’s final written decision and remand for the Board to dismiss Apple’s petition. See Apple, 976 F.3d at 1321 (citing United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36, 39–41 (1950)). No costs. VACATED AND REMANDED Circuit Judge Sharon Prost vacated the position of Chief Judge on May 21, 2021. *

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